Japanese government to repay victims of forced sterilization, PM’s office says

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s office on Wednesday said the government would review a decision by Japan’s Supreme Court finding a former eugenics law unconstitutional. From 1948-1996, the Japanese government ordered the sterilization of people with mental disabilities, hereditary diseases, psychiatric issues, and other disabilities. The law also authorized abortions of babies whose mothers were physically or mentally disabled or spouses who suffered from such disabilities.

While the law was in effect, roughly 16,500 people lost their ability to have children without their consent, according to Osaka City University. In its Wednesday decision, the Supreme Court ordered the government to compensate individuals sterilized under the law.

How will the government compensate these victims? The Japanese prime minister’s office did not detail how it would compensate the victims of the law. It said the victims have sought a meeting with the prime minister.

Has Japan done anything to solve this issue before this? In 2019, Japan passed a law ordering under $20,000 in compensation for each person victimized by the eugenics law, according to the Japanese media outlet Kyodo News. However, three years later, the government deemed only about 1,000 victims eligible for compensation, according to the Japan Federation of Bar Associations. That partially arose from the fact that the government had failed to notify many victims that they were eligible for compensation, the federation added. The lawyers’ association also criticized the government for not declaring the law unconstitutional in 2019.

Dig deeper: Read Alex Ward’s column in WORLD Opinions about what happens when human dignity has a price tag.